NAUGATUCK HISTORICAL SOCIETY MUSEUM formerly the Naugatuck Railroad Station
ARTHITECT - HENRY BACON - CONTINUED (Page
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Stylistically distinctive and generally well-preserved,
the Naugatuck Railroad Station is a fine example of the Spanish
Colonial Revival-style, a design rarely used for public buildings
in Connecticut. It is primarily significant as the work of Henry
Bacon (1866-1924), a major American architect who is best know as
the designer of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. The station
derives added importance from its local historic context, particularly
its association with John H. Whittemore (d. 1910), a wealthy Naugatuck
industrialist who had a profound and lasting influence on the town's
architectural development around the turn of the century.
Architectural Significance: For Henry Bacon, the Lincoln
Memorial was the culmination of a distinguished career as a classical
architect. At a special ceremony there in 1923, President Warren
Harding presented him with the American Institute of Architects
(AIA) Gold Medal, the highest award bestowed by this professional
organization. To have achieved this level of recognition by his
peers was quite remarkable, given that Bacon never had any formal
academic training in architecture. He began his career as an apprentice
in the Boston offices of Chamberlin & Whidden. Within a few years
he was hired by McKim, Mead, and White, then one of the most prestigious
architectural firms in the country. During his tenure there, Bacon
was allowed a two-year leave to accept a traveling scholarship to
study in Europe. He returned to New York in 1891 in time to assist
on the firm's designs for buildings at the Columbian Exposition
of 1893 in Chicago and also was one of the supervising architects
during their construction. In 1897 Bacon left to set up a partnership
with James Brite. By 1902 he had established his own office in New
York at 160 Fifth Avenue, where he practiced until his death.
Throughout his career, Bacon was inspired by the classical Beaux-Arts
tradition, undoubtedly influenced by his mentors at McKim, Mead,
and White, his studies in Europe, and his lifelong friendship with
a fellow classicist, architect Daniel Burnham, whom he first met
at the Columbian Exposition. Although Bacon designed a great number
of public, academic, and commercial buildings in the Neo-Classical
or Classical revival styles, he spent much of his professional life
on commissions for pedestals and monumental settings for statuary.
In his collaboration with renowned sculptor Daniel Chester French,
Bacon completed more than 50 projects (including the Lincoln Memorial).
He also designed architectural settings for Augustus Saint-Gaudens
in Europe and the United States.
Bacon had strong ties to Connecticut. For a number of years, he
was a resident architect at Wesleyan University (then a college)
in Middletown, where he designed the master plan for the campus
expansion. Among his major buildings there was Olin Library, which
demonstrated his continued preference for the monumentality and
ordered conformity of classical architecture.
Clearly the design of the Naugatuck Railroad Station was quite a
stylistic departure for Bacon. Indeed, the Spanish Colonial Revival
style was such an unusual choice for an urban New England setting
that it may have been selected by John Howard Whittemore, then director
of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad, who commissioned
the project. This style was almost the exclusive genre of the American
Southwest and West, where its popularity rivaled that of the Colonial
Revival in the East. It is interesting to note that the style was
used exclusively by the Santa Fe and Southern Pacific railroads
or stations and hotels in this period.
Bacon's design for the railroad station was actually an architectural
compromise. While remaining true to his architectural ideals, he
was able to please the client by combining the Spanish Colonial
and classical precedent. Such a potential dichotomy would be obvious
in the hands of a less skillful architect. Since the essential integrity
of the building has been preserved, the subtlety and harmony of
his solution is still apparent. Even though the Spanish influence
was clearly conveyed by low tile roofs, the use of stucco, and the
single design reference of the shaped gamble hood, the building
draws extensively on classical theory. Its balanced symmetry and
three-part massing recall a Palladian villa, an effect emphasized
by the tripartite windows of the facade, and certainly the trabeated
main doorway is more classical than Spanish. The formal ordering
of the exterior is carried out in plan, with secondary spaces perfectly
balanced on either side of the principal room. Interior finishes
are austere and refined, especially when compared to the rough stuccoed
walls and various other materials employed outside.
Classical principles also were expressed in Bacon's site plan, with
the building making a terminating cross-axis to the approach to
the site down Cedar Street. On either side of the street, twin pocket
parks were designed by Bacon to enhance this approach, but much
of that effect has been lost. Only part of the landscaping on the
north has survived. A large industrial complex to the south associated
with the rubber industry was demolished and in 1999, a United States
Post Office building was erected on this site.
